This is a follow-up to 2 diaries yesterday (one from poblano and one from AHiddenSaint) that highlighted Hillary AFSCME supporters milking the bitter controversy for all it's worth. Over the weekend in Altoona, PA, 8 people (at least 2 from out of state) protested in front of Obama's Altoona HQ - a supposed spontaneous outpouring of outrage. Their message? - "We are not bitter and we have the signs to prove it!"
Supposedly, this was one of 6 similar Clinton-related NOT-BITTER protests across Pennsylvania over the weekend.
Obama supporters are responding now
First, there was the letter (h/t to AHiddenSaint) from 21 rural and small town officials defending Obama.
And now, Obama's United Steelworkers of America supporters are staging 11 of their own attention-grabbing events to counter - one in Johnstown.
But Alaimo, a former U.S. Steel employee in Johnstown who has twice been displaced by plant closings, said he supports Obama and believes the candidate is "the man who can transform our country" as president.
"I do not think he’s an elitist," Alaimo said. "I think he was taken out of context."
Joining him Monday was Frank Fantauzzo of East Taylor Township and Johnstown resident Aaron Stuart, who said Obama understands those who are struggling financially.
"For too many years, we’ve heard promises that have just never panned out," Stuart said.
The Johnstown event gets further area coverage in The Altoona Mirror: Darn right we're bitter, workers say:
Stuart joined others for a news conference across from Point Stadium Monday, where steel mills used to employ thousands. The group agreed with Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama’s comment last week that Pennsylvanians facing hard economic times are bitter.
The Obama campaign organized 11 such events across the state in a continued response to attacks on his comment from opponent Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and presumptive Republican nominee Sen. John McCain.
. . snip . .
"It just amazes me that the comments he made were construed as being out of touch," he said. "If anything, Sen. Obama is more in touch than any of the remaining candidates."
I expect the local TV stations to cover it as well.
UPDATE: I found another such event in Jeannette, Wesmoreland County.
"Although (Obama's) choice of words were not the best, the underlying fact is that many people in this state do feel left out by candidates who continue to make promises and then nothing ever happens. They feel left out and ignored," Tangretti said.
Tangretti believes Obama is the only candidate in the April 22 primary who offers voters a chance to wrest control from "the same old groups that have controlled Washington for the past 20 years."
The Jeannette gathering was one of 11 news conferences Obama supporters held across the state yesterday hoping to combat criticism against the campaign in recent days for comments the Illinois senator made at a fundraiser in San Francisco last week. Other events were held in front of closed factories in Ambridge, Bethlehem, Carlisle, Johnstown, Lester in Delaware County, Levittown, McKeesport, Pittston, Pottstown and Reading.
I think that is a pretty good response, actually.